This invention relates to an article delivery system for arranging paper sheets and box-like or cubic articles in the order of delivery in accordance with sorting information provided thereon, or for providing the delivery order so as to help the delivery operation.
One example of apparatuses for handling a plurality of kinds of articles each having sorting information and for arranging these articles in the order of delivery is a paper sheet and the like delivery route structuring apparatus disclosed in JP-A-7-185471. This paper sheet and the like delivery route structuring apparatus comprises a first memory portion for storing delivery points of first paper sheets and the like, a second memory portion for storing delivery points of second paper sheets and the like, and identification unit inserting means for inserting identification units, corresponding to the respective second paper sheets and the like, in relevant positions at the arranged first paper sheets and the like.
In the actual delivering operation, a plurality of kinds of articles are delivered at the same time. For example, in a mail processing service, regular-shape letters, irregular-shape letters and special letters (such as registered mail) are brought out at the same time, and are delivered. In a delivering operation, such as a door-to-door courier service by a courier service company, parcels and letters are delivered at the same time.
However, if an amount of articles, which one sorting device can handle, is limited, or there are limitations on the delivery management, the articles cannot be physically arranged in one delivery order. Therefore, the delivery order for each kind of articles must be found, and in the prior art technique, this is not taken into consideration.
In the prior art technique, identification units for the other articles are inserted in main articles. However, when the proportion of the other articles is high, the number of the identification units, similar in shape to the main article, is increased, and this is not desirable because the amount of articles increases.
And besides, the arrangement of the articles cannot be effected until all of the articles are collected. The other hand, when the arrangement of the articles is started after all of the article are collected, a long time is required, and this results in a problem that the delivery is delayed. Therefore, it has been required that each time the articles are collected in a certain amount, the arrangement should be effected. However, in this case, a plurality of arrangement rows of articles are formed, and the burden on the operator increases at the time of delivery.
Furthermore, in the prior art technique, that kind of articles, larger in amount than the other articles, are arranged, and the order of delivery of the other articles is determined on the basis of the larger amount articles. However, the delivery order, formed on the basis of one kind of articles, is often different from the delivery order formed on the basis of all of the articles, and the proper delivery order could not always be obtained.
Accordingly, in an apparatus of the present invention, in order to solve the above problems, an object is to unify and arrange a plurality of kinds of articles, or to unify and arrange the delivery points, to which the plurality of kinds of articles are to be delivered, respectively, to provide to the operator.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an article delivery system for arranging articles in accordance with sorting information, provided thereon, so as to help the delivery of the articles, comprising:
a plurality of article information procuring means for respectively procuring article information each containing at least the sorting information and kind information corresponding to the article; and
delivery order forming means for arranging the article information in the order of delivery in accordance with the sorting information in the article information procured by the article information procuring means, and for transmitting the arranged article information in accordance with the arranging processing of the articles.
With this construction, it becomes possible to unify and arrange the plurality of kinds of articles.
When actually arranging the articles in the order of delivery, the arranged article information, corresponding to each kind of articles to be arranged, are transmitted, and in the arranging operation, the arrangement can be effected, taking into consideration the order of delivery of all the articles to be delivered.
To achieve the object of the invention, there is provided an article delivery system for arranging articles in accordance with sorting information, provided thereon, so as to help the delivery of the articles, comprising:
a plurality of article information procuring means for respectively procuring article information each containing at least the sorting information and kind information corresponding to the article;
delivery order forming means which receives the article information from the article information procuring means, and arranges the article information, each containing at least the sorting information, in the order of delivery, and transmits the arranged article information; and
order indicating means for indicating the arrangement order or the delivery order formed by the delivery order forming means.
With this construction, it becomes possible to unify the delivery points, to which the plurality of kinds of articles are to be delivered, respectively, and to provide this information to the operator.
To achieve the object of the invention, in the article delivery system of the invention, at least one of the plurality of article information procuring means is provided, and an article sorting device is provided which sorts the articles in accordance with the sorting information, procured by sorting information procuring means and the article arrangement order formed by the deliver order forming means.
In the article delivery system of the invention, at least one of the plurality of article information procuring means includes identification unit producing means for producing an identification unit, containing identification information corresponding to the article, for the article, and there is provided order indicating means having identification unit confirming means capable of confirming the identification information from the identification unit, and therefore the deliver order can be indicated in accordance with the identification information.
In the invention, at least one of the plurality of article information procuring means comprises means for procuring the form of the article, and there is provided order indicating means for indicating the delivery order, formed by the delivery order forming means, and for displaying form information of the article. Therefore, the order of delivery of the articles, as well as the articles, can be easily identified. The article form information comprises information enabling the easy identification of the articles, such as the appearance of letters, the appearance of parcels, and characteristic portions thereof.
Preferably, the article information procuring means of the invention includes a reader for reading characters and bar code.
Preferably, the order indicating means of the invention is connected to positioning means for measuring the position where the order indicating means exists and displays the position upon measurement.
The delivery order forming means of the invention transmits the arranged article information every arrangements of the articles. Therefore, the articles, each having the respective sorting information, can be arranged in the delivery order in a unified manner regardless of the timing of having obtained the sorting information. If the articles of the same kinds are arranged in a plurality of rows when these articles are arranged in the delivery order, any one of these rows is indicated, and by doing so, the articles can be delivered along the optimum delivery path.
To achieve the object of the invention, an article information processing apparatus of the invention stores article information of articles procured by a plurality of article information procuring means which procure the article information each containing at least sorting information and kind information corresponding to the article, and arranges the article information in the order of delivery in accordance with the sorting information in the article information, and transmits the arranged article information in accordance with the arranging processing of the articles.
With this construction, the articles, each having the sorting information, can be arranged in the delivery order in a unified manner regardless of the kinds of articles. The sorting information of the articles are managed in such a manner that the kinds of articles, as well as the arrangement rows of the articles, are distinguished from each other, and by doing so, the order of delivery of all the articles to be delivered can be formed.
Still further advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description of the preferred and alternate embodiments.